Large tiger shark caught near SC beach estimated at 15 to 25 years old

Published 4:07 pm, Friday, August 7, 2015

A tiger shark caught by South Carolina commercial fishermen could have been 25 years old, a state official said.

No official measurements were taken of the big specimen, estimated at 13 feet long and weighing 800 pounds, so it's difficult to determine the age, said Bryan Frazier, a wildlife biologist with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.

The huge creature was caught Saturday off Folly Beach near Charleston, according to the Post and Courier.

"It was probably 15 to 25 years old," Frazier said Friday. "They're a difficult species to age, and we don't have access to that many of them."

Although controversial -- the fishermen who posted photos of the captured shark on Facebook have apparently taken them down -- the catch was legal.

"It's a legal catch in a legal fishery," Frazier said. "As longer as there's not data that suggests the species is in an overfished state, there's no reason for us as an agency to not allow commercial fishermen to fish this species."

A bill pending in the South Carolina Legislature, however, would change that.

House Bill 3786, which passed the South Carolina House of Representatives in March and is pending in a state senate committee, would make it illegal to take or possess a tiger shark. The Legislature next convenes in January.

"Any tiger shark that is caught must be released immediately and must remain completely in the water at all times while being released," the proposed bill states.

If passed, the measure would apply to both recreational and commercial fishermen.

In the United States, tiger sharks are not considered threatened or endangered, although there is not enough information to assess their population status, Frazier said.

"We believe they were overfished in the '90s, but surveys generally are showing their (U.S.) population rebounding," he said. A global index of species classifies tiger sharks as "near threatened," the second level of a six-level system where No. 6 represents "extinct," he said.

Meanwhile, the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources is working with the nonprofit organization OCEARCH to tag and track sharks that visit the state's coast.

"We know they're here, but we don't know how important our coastal waters are to them," Frazier said.